Sheboygan Habitat for Humanity director faces child porn charges

The recently fired executive director of Habitat for Humanity in Sheboygan has been charged in Winnebago County on charges of possessing child pornography after thousands of such images and dozens of videos were allegedly found on his laptop computer, according to a criminal complaint.

Jay Barrientes, 31, 1385 Mason St., Apt. 3, Oshkosh, was charged Tuesday with 10 felony counts of child pornography possession. Each count carries a maximum of up to 15 years in prison, if convicted.

Prior to his role as executive director of Habitat for Humanity-Lakeside, which covers Sheboygan and Ozaukee counties, Barrientes was the Oshkosh Habitat for Humanity resource coordinator from July 2013 until November 2014. He began his role with Habitat for Humanity Lakeside in early November.

According to a criminal complaint:

A crime analyst downloaded a video file over a file sharing network on Feb. 14 that showed a young girl between the ages of 4 and 6 engaging in sexual activity with an adult man. The investigation showed the IP address was associated with an account belonging to Barrientes.

The Winnebago County Sheriff's Office executed a search warrant at Barrientes' residence in Oshkosh, on April 1. Barrientes told authorities he had lived at the residence by himself for the last two years. An analysis performed on a laptop computer at the residence showed thousands of images of what appeared to be child pornography and approximately 100 videos.

Barrientes was arrested and taken to the Winnebago County Jail, where he agreed to give a statement. He told investigators he started using file sharing networks when he was in college to share music, but he did not trade child pornography. He acknowledged at some point he began trading child pornography.

He didn't download child pornography often, but Barrientes said when he had "highs and lows" he would struggle and then download photos and videos. He said he would then get rid of them because he "knew it was wrong," the complaint states.

The Habitat Lakeside Board of Directors called an emergency meeting Tuesday night where they voted to remove Barrientes from his position.

"It's been a challenging 24 hours," Habitat for Humanity-Lakeside Board President Jesse Osborn said in a phone interview Wednesday afternoon.

Osborn said the board was prompted to look into Barrientes' well-being after he failed to show up to work for nearly a week and failed to contact anyone about his absence. That's when they became aware Barrientes had been arrested, he said.

At no prior time did the board or any Habitat employees have knowledge of the alleged child pornography possession, Osborn said.

Habitat for Humanity-Lakeside issued the following statement regarding Barrientes' arrest:

"Jay Barrientes, the executive director of Habitat for Humanity-Lakeside for the past five months, is no longer with the organization. We are aware of the situation involving this former employee and take the matter extremely seriously. Our priority right now is to support our employees, volunteers and partner families through this very difficult time. The Board of Directors is immediately moving forward with a search for a new executive director. As we do so the staff, Board of Directors, volunteers, partners and sponsors will continue to pursue our core mission and bring people in the Sheboygan area together to build homes, communities and hope."

Barrientes remains in custody at the Winnebago County Jail on a $10,000 cash bond. He is due back in court April 16 for a preliminary hearing.

Noell Dickman and Jennifer Woldt of the Oshkosh Northwestern and Kali Thiel of the Sheboygan Press contributed to this report.